by Mike Garafolo, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Garafolo, USA TODAY Sports

LANDOVER, Md. â?? And so here they go again, the New York Giants, the defending Super Bowl champs, writing a story that pretty much writes itself by now, begging for the questions that are easily formed to be asked once again, making this thing so much harder than it has to be and should be.

Once holding a three-game lead in the win column in the NFC East, they're now up only one game after Monday night's penalty-riddled, mistake-filled 17-16 loss to the Washington Redskins.

Robert Griffin III is still giving the Giants (7-5) fits. And now he and the Redskins (6-6) are only a game back. And so are the Cowboys, whom the Giants seemed to put away with a win late in October.

"In typical Giants fashion, we're going to make it difficult for ourselves, going back and forth and things like that," wide receiver Victor Cruz said in a postgame locker room that was less aggravated and more at peace with an outcome they tried to avoid but could now see coming in hindsight. "At one point in the season last year, we became consistent and became a pretty good force on offense and defensively, as well. We know at some point we're going to get to that, and we just got to get through the grind of this season, get through the grind of these last four, and finish the season strong."

Do they know that will be the case? Should they know that will be the case? Or are they just hoping that will be the case?

Yeah, that's what happened last season when they started to play smart football in all three phases of the game and rattled off six straight victories from the Christmas Eve defeat of the New York Jets through the Super Bowl XLVI upset of the New England Patriots.

And, yeah, in 2007, they strung four straight wins together in the postseason in a run eerily similar to this one from last season.

But it didn't happen in the three years between those championship seasons, when this team sputtered down the stretch. And right now, they're sputtering again, having lost three of their last four games.

They're not playing smart, solid football. Not consistently anyway.

Monday night they were flagged for a season-high nine penalties, the most costly of which were a pair of holds on backup offensive lineman Jim Cordle on kickoff returns and a holding penalty on left tackle Will Beatty that negated an 11-yard catch by Martellus Bennett on third-and-10 on a potential go-ahead drive late in the fourth quarter.

Though Beatty grabbed linebacker Rob Jackson around the neck, he thought he had kept his feet moving well enough to avoid the call. He was wrong.

"I didn't agree with the call, but there was nothing I could do. There's not a judge and jury out there," Beatty said, adding, "The ref threw the flag at the last second and I was like, 'We've been doing this all game. We've been going at each other. It's not like this was something new.'"

So instead of first-and-10 at the Redskins' 46-yard line with 4:32 to play and needing only a field goal to take the lead, the Giants faced a third-and-20. A screen pass designed to create a manageable fourth down instead went for only 4 yards.

They punted. And never saw the ball again.

If they don't start playing smart football and get out of this rut they promised they'd avoid this season, they won't see the top of the division again.

"I don't know what happened in the second half. We certainly didn't come out to play," said coach Tom Coughlin, who obviously was riled by the number of mental mistakes his team made. "Penalties, sloppy football."

Even when they played good football in the first half, it was still sloppy football.

To wit, on a touchdown drive in the first half, they had to overcome three penalties for 20 yards, which means they actually went 105 yards instead of the 85 on the stat sheet for that drive.

They did it then. But it was just a matter of too many penalties to try to overcome and too many chances for Griffin to play keep-away. He did that with a huge 17-yard slant to Pierre Garcon just before the 2-minute warning. And then rookie running back Alfred Morris ran through Chris Canty's one-armed tackle attempt to ice the game.

Maybe the unseasonably warm weather Monday confused the Giants into thinking it's not yet time to start playing smarter and more aggressively. Or maybe it was the injuries that are limiting defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul and Kenny Phillips, as well as the knee injury suffered Monday night by right tackle Sean Locklear that could end his season.

Whatever the case, the Giants are back where they're used to being at this time of year. And much as they'll tell you this week that's where they like to be because that's when they play their best ball, there's just no reason for them to be here right now, locked in a tight divisional race they should've clinched by now.

Well, now they have to. And they still have a chance to do so. As offensive line coach Pat Flaherty said while putting his arm around very frustrated center David Baas on the way out of the locker room, "There's a lot of football left. We're right there."